Takeda Pharmaceutical: Phase III Clinical Trial Success of New Drug Zasocitinib for Psoriasis

Takeda Pharmaceuticals announced that its new generation, highly selective oral tyrosine kinase 2 inhibitor Zasocitinib for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis achieved positive primary results in two pivotal Phase 3, randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. The studies showed that Zasocitinib was significantly superior to placebo at week 16, meeting the co-primary endpoint of the proportion of participants with a static Physician Global Assessment score of 0 or 1 being superior to placebo, as well as the proportion of participants with at least 75% improvement in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index from baseline being superior to placebo. Furthermore, a significantly higher PASI 75 response rate was observed as early as week 4, and continued to increase up to week 24. These studies also achieved all 44 prespecified secondary endpoints, including PASI 90, PASI 100, and sPGA 0 compared to placebo and apremilast, demonstrating the potential of this convenient once-daily oral regimen to achieve complete clearance of skin lesions.